A Clayton County judge Tuesday denied Johnathan Bun’s motion to block the county’s district attorney from prosecuting his case and denied him bond on some of the charges he faces, keeping the teen in jail.
Among other things, Bun, 17, is accused of shooting and killing Clayton sheriff’s Deputy Rick Daly on July 20.
In a speedy arraignment hearing Tuesday that followed a lengthy motions hearing, Bun pleaded not guilty to a host of charges related to the July shooting as well as a January armed robbery.
A motion for a venue change heard Tuesday was put off until closer to the yet to be determined trial date. Prosecutors also filed a request for a gag order preventing those involved in the case from speaking to the media. A ruling on that is still pending.
Bun’s attorney, Lloyd Matthews, argued Clayton District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson should be disqualified from the case because of the former juvenile court judge’s experience presiding over a previous Bun juvenile criminal hearing.
“The present DA had direct involvement in some of my client’s cases in court,” Matthews said. “We are uncomfortable with the DA prosecuting this case.”
He argued that Lawson has a personal stake in the case.
“These juvenile judges do everything they can to rehabilitate these youth before they turn 17,” Matthews told Clayton County Superior Court Judge Deborah Benefield. “And there’s an inevitable sense of failure if that juvenile doesn’t become a law-abiding person after they become 18. I think that Tracy Lawson would take that personal.”
Assistant District Attorney Jason Green took the stand, along with two other assistant district attorneys, to testify that Lawson has sequestered herself from any dealings with the case since Aug. 1.
“There is no evidence [Lawson] has a personal stake in this case,” Benefield said. “I do not find a legal basis to disqualify her. Even if she has disqualified herself, the remainder of her office would not be precluded from prosecuting the case.”
Matthews also contended his client was entitled to bond, citing a state code that calls for defendants jailed for more than 90 days without an indictment to be able to request bond.
“We’re just asking that a reasonable bond be set,” Matthews told Benefield. “If he was allowed bond, he’d go live with his parents.”
Chief Assistant District Attorney Erman Tanjuatco argued Bun could not be trusted to remain outside a jail.
Steve Payne, Lawson’s chief investigator, testified that he interviewed Bun with GBI agents after the shooting.
“What did he say about shooting the deputy?” Tanjuatco asked Payne.
“He said he shot him,” Payne told the court.
Tanjuatco argued Bun was both a flight risk and a dangerous person, and asked the judge for a bond totaling $8 million.
Matthews asked for a $200,000 bond.
Benefield agreed to grant Bun bond on the original charges he was arrested for — malice murder, armed robbery and two counts of felony gun possession — but denied bond for 15 other charges, including several counts of felony murder added when Bun was indicted last month.
“He was only entitled to bond on the charges he was arrested on,” the judge said, “not the charges added later by the grand jury.
“The defendant is a risk to commit a new violent crime, based on the evidence,” Benefield said. “And following the [alleged] commission of the malice murder, the defendant fled.”
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